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Facebook and Twitter users alert gardaí to fight threat

Mon, Jan 23, 2012, 00:00

ELAINE KEOGH

GARDAÍ HAVE praised a number of people who through Facebook and Twitter saw a row being planned between groups of teenagers and alerted the authorities.

Gardaí arrived as about 75 teenagers had gathered in Duleek, Co Meath. “Their actions prevented what had the potential to be a serious incident,” said Garda Supt Jim Cannon of Laytown, Co Meath.

About a third of the teenagers who were from Drogheda took a bus to Duleek, some 8km away. It is understood they were to meet a group of teenagers from Duleek and there was to be a confrontation. The fight had been planned for last weekend.

According to Garda Supt Cannon, “essentially the civic-mindedness and attention to what was happening in their locality prevented what might have been a serious incident. It certainly had the potential to be one.”

Dominic Hannigan, Labour TD for Meath East, said the row had been “planned on Facebook”.

“People need to be socially aware when using social network sites,” he said. “Thankfully in this case that is what happened. There was no fight because civic-minded people who saw the notices on Facebook informed the gardaí.”

Sources confirmed that Twitter posts also alerted residents in Duleek to what was brewing. When gardaí were told, units from Laytown and Drogheda went to the scene and prevented any public order incident occurring.